Category: Food Policy

Touch the Soil News #635 A food tremor is something more than background noise. It casts a hint of what a food problem can grow into. For example, in nature tremors often foreshadow a volcanic eruption or earthquake. Food Tremors Now Happening The global demand for vegetable cooking oil is so great it is driving rainforest demolition and people exploitation. Peoples of all nations are competing voraciously for the same pool of cooking oils (palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil and olive oil). This tremor can drive food inflation. Congested crop farming leaves little room for nature to mitigate disease. Wheat rust is a fungal disease that compromises wheat,…

Touch the Soil News #305 Located in Southeastern Iowa is Johnson County – home to some 132,000 people. Recently the Johnson County Extension service created a new position – a first in Iowa (maybe in the nation). The position is for a Local Food and Planning Specialist for Johnson County. The position is designed to bolster the local foods supply chain around the Iowa City area – the county seat of Johnson County. Unlike the USDA which is focused primarily on industrial agriculture and exports, Johnson County wants to develop and expand the production and consumption of food in the Iowa City area. The County just hired Shanti Sellz, an…